What Comes Around . . .

I believe that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. I also believe that bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. It's pretty much a crapshoot as to what you're going to get. "Momma always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." Still, I think way more good comes to people who are inherently good. We're talking about karma here. Which probably explains what happened to me yesterday.

A coworker came up with the brilliant idea to prank the school secretary. She got half a dozen of us onboard with her plan. “We’ll all call in on Monday morning. Tell her your child is sick, or you’re sick, or you have jury duty or an appointment, or something. Tell her that you won’t be in at all or that you’ll be late.”

When one or two of us are out, the poor secretary has to scramble and rearrange everyone to make sure each position is covered. When half a dozen of us are out . . . Well, thankfully that never happens. I would love to have been a fly on the wall as she received call after call and text after text yesterday morning. I’m sure she was pulling out her hair, trying to figure out how she was ever going to cover all our positions.

I texted her at 7:15 saying that my son was sick so I wouldn’t be in to work. This was just an April Fool’s prank so, of course, I (and everyone else) showed up for work. However, at 11:00 I got a call from my kids’ middle school. “Hi. This is the nurse. I have Jackson here and he’s not feeling well. He has a slight fever. You need to come pick him up.”

This is what happens when you lie about your kid being sick. They get sick.

On the bright side, this happened during my planning period/lunch so I was able to get him and get back to work without missing any classes. But, karma wasn’t done with me. Apparently, when you lie and say you have a sick child, the payback is having to deal with two sick children because about an hour later I got another call from the school nurse. “Hi. It’s me again. Now I have Lexi here and she’s also running a low fever.”

“Sigh. I’m on my way.”


Next year, I think I’ll bring donuts in for the office staff. Then maybe I’ll get some good karma. Like winning the lottery.